The present invention relates to three-dimensional imaging. In particular, three-dimensional (3D) imaging uses data acquired in a different format than the display format.
Volume rendering generates two-dimensional images from three-dimensional data volumes. MRI, CT and ultrasound use volume rendering for three-dimensional imaging. Typically, software that is computationally expensive and time consuming implements volume rendering.
Ultrasound data formatted in a display Cartesian coordinate grid are volume rendered using graphic accelerators, such as graphic accelerators for general purpose personal computers. The data is interpolated or scan converted along a Cartesian coordinate 3D grid before volume rendering. Three-dimensional texturing using application programming interfaces, such as OpenGL or DirectX, is used to render the three-dimensional data set.